The Great Wall
by Dalek Sec
Summary: This is a story about the frontier of the UN 'Empire'. The concept a UN is taken off Halo, which I do not own, the rest is my own concepts.


This is my first work of fanfiction. What on, you might say? This is an alternate planet Earth; it has fallen to savagery, and the among the last Bastions of civilizations, the 'un empire', as it is known, is struggling against the barbarous rebels who are determined to destroy it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this piece of fiction.

After all, life is just one big story.

**The Great Wall**

The bitter cold wind blew snow in his face. His hands were numb and his nose and ears felt like they were on fire. He looked over the parapet of the wall at the bleak, stark, frozen wasteland ahead of him.

The Great Wall, also known as Dominican's wall, stretched from Germany in the west to China in the east. It was the UN Empire's best and last defense against a possible invasion by the barbarian tribes to the north.

It was not a simple wall, as such. It had five stages: A one hundred metre wide field, littered with caltrops, concealed pits and spikes. The second stage was a large five metre deep ditch. It was, in most places, filled with water and at higher elevations was usually based off existing streams. Behind that there was a raised earth platform, usually constructed from the dirt excavated from making the ditch. Behind the raised platform there was a further fifty metres of open ground and behind that there was a four metre high wall made from brick. The final stage was a wall nearly three times that height with towers placed at hundred metre intervals. Usually there were only eight guards per tower, and today was no exception.

Gillick was a Mercenary from the shores of the Great Inland Sea. His Mercenary band of thirty was of Central origin. He was hired by the Empire to patrol the Great wall. In addition to his usual pay, after twenty years of this service he and his comrades would attain full citizenship of the Empire. He was not by any means the group's leader, but he was one of their bowmen.

What he saw as he gazed into the distance was enough to make even him, a battle hardened warrior, tremble in fear. A mass of blackness had appeared on the horizon. It was a barbarian horde, a seething mass of savages ready to slaughter thousands at a whim, a people with no concept of retreat, surrender or mercy.

The Mercenary band spread out along the wall, preparing their bows and crossbows. The Imperial troops in the nearby towers had seen the threat and sprinted towards the armory. However, only the officer in charge of a tower could unlock the armory – they had the only key. Unfortunately they were asleep and that meant that, for now, Gillick and his band were it.

The Barbarian horde raced across the antipersonnel field. Many of them fell screaming with their feet impaled upon hidden barbs and spikes. As they fell they were trampled to death by their fellow barbarians. They quickly descended into the water filled ditch and started the steep climb up the other side. Gillick and his archers had begun to shoot at them, and though accuracy at such ranges was not guaranteed, one only had to fire somewhere in the general direction of the barbarian horde and you were bound to hit someone.

The barbarians traversed the raised mound and began a final dash for the double walls. By now the crossbowmen were firing as well - they were using repeater crossbows, smeared with snake venom. Some of the barbarians had bows and were firing back, albeit inaccurately. They all knew that it was nowhere near enough to hold back the onslaught, but they kept shooting regardless- it was what they were payed for, after all. Gillick was now out of arrows. He picked up his repeater crossbow and resumed shooting, now almost at point blank range, barbarians were hoisting wooden ladders up onto the walls. One ladder landed directly in front of him, a fur clad savage wearing an Imperial Trooper's helmet atop it. He aimed his bow to fire, but the barbarian sliced downward with his axe, chopping his bow in half. Gillick drew his knife.

The Imperial troops had finally armed themselves. They had summoned help, and only now was it arriving. Tarsal drop ships landed behind the wall, disgorging squads of marines. But it was too late, and they knew it. The troops withdrew from the wall as the defenses were overrun by the barbarians, the Marines pulled back to the Tarsals and lifted off with seconds to spare. Arrows and spears struck the metal undersides of the drop ships as they pulled away.

Amongst the chaos they had left behind them, a helmeted barbarian finished his bloody work and with a roar raised his new bloodstained trophy to the sky.

But the last drop ship seemed to hesitate for a few seconds before dropping a series of small target co-ordination MAI units, taking off and leaving them to their fate. The units hummed to life as they hit the ground, emitting a faint green glow. Five hundred kilometres above the wall a United Nations Space Command _Goliath IV_ class Weapons platform powered up and fired a salvo of two tonne projectiles at the wall.

Eckschtel tied the mercenary's head to his belt by its long hair and stood up, replacing his dagger in its sheath and slipping his axe in under his belt. He undid the strap on the comfortable 'un marines' helmet he was wearing and took it off just in time to see the fireballs crash down from the sky, smashing the wall beneath his feet and turning it into dust.

The French Army specialist team who had been watching the attack drove back to their encampment to report back their superiors in France. They would not be pleased; the barbarians had failed to cause any serious disruption to 'the un empire' and its armies (the barbarians couldn't grasp the concept the letters U and N stood for United Nations, nor could they understand government outside of Kingdoms and Empires). But their plans would advance nonetheless.

By Dalek Sec


End file.
